RIGA, Latvia - Sweden shut out defending champion Czech Republic, 4-0, on Sunday to win hockey's world championship, becoming the first country to win that title and Olympic gold in the same year.
It was the eighth world title for Sweden, which had eight Olympic champions on its roster. In the Winter Olympics, Sweden beat Finland in the final.
No team had managed the elusive double in international hockey. There have been six previous times when the Olympics and world championships were played as separate tournaments in the same year.
"It's fun to be part of hockey history," coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson said. "I think we played more or less a perfect game today. After taking a 2-0 lead, we had a good control of the game."
Sweden was missing one of its top goal scorers, Mika Hannula (four goals), who was suspended one game after cross-checking the Penguins' Sidney Crosby into the boards in the semifinals against Canada.
But the team managed fine without him. Jesper Mattsson, Fredrik Emvall, Niklas Kronwall and veteran Jorgen Jonsson, playing in his 11th worlds, gave Sweden a 4-0 lead after the first two periods.
Finland 5, Canada 0
The Finns earned their first world medal since winning silver in 2001. They got goals from Tomi Kallio, Olli Jokinen, Riku Hahl, Antti Miettinen and Jussi Jokinen.
Three of the goals came on the power play. Two goals came when Canada was two men short.
"It's always a disappointment, but it's a better way to finish the season with a win than a loss," Nummelin said. "You can ask the Canadian guys, and they probably don't feel that good right now."
Canada, which lost last year's final to the Czech Republic after winning back-to-back titles in 2003 and '04, failed to medal for the first time in four years.
Finland goalie Fredrik Norrena had 37 saves for his third shutout. Alex Auld, getting the start for Canada after relieving Marc Denis in the semifinals, made 28 saves.
"We played hard," said Crosby, one of the NHL's top rookies this season with the Penguins. "We just tried to stay patient and keep going. But it seemed like, as it went on, we became more drained, and it was hard to keep that level of intensity, and we got a couple of bad breaks.
"It was hard just to keep that same level of emotion."
